4.1 Assam
4.1.3 Textile
dirt to pass out. The Khorahi is woven in plain and square form but is gradually bent in a round form at the time of final stitching by flexible cane slips.
Kula (winnowing fan) - It is prepared out of flat bamboo slips for winnowing purposes in different sizes and shapes. Twilled design is used for a kula. The edge of the ‘Kula’ is made strong by fixing of two sets of one-inch wide bamboo pieces wrapped up in flexible cane strips.
Paran- These are various cages or basket traps made of bamboo splits used for catching fishes. There are two kinds of ‘parans’, namely (i) ‘uba paran’ (vertical cage) and (ii) ‘pora paran’ (horizontal cage). These are provided with one or two valves or trap doors through which fishes can be easily trapped.
Polo - It resembles the shape of a dome with short stem of about 6" diameter open
at the top. The diameter at the bottom varies from 2 ft-3½ ft. and even upto 4 ft.
and the height varies from 2 ft. to 3 ft. It is prepared out of small bamboo strips fastened with fine and flexible cane slips. Polo is used for fishing in shallow water.
The man who uses it hold it by the side of the stem, presses its rim on the mud, then pulls it back and lifts above or up to the level of water and again presses it as before while moving on through water. Whenever any fish is caught, he puts his hand inside through the stem to catch hold of the fish; julki is a small polo prepared in the samefashion.
Fishing Implements, Fig. 61 (Rohdhola, Bihlongoni, North Guwahati), Polo, Jakai, Khaloi, Chepa, Dori, Paran are generally used in catching fishes in shallow water.
Apart from these contrivances, there are some other implements of design made of bamboo and cane, and are used for catching fishes in deep waters. These are locally known as gui, jhuti, dingaru, thupa, hogra, etc.
hands of women of all classes. Although women of respectability and position usually prepared only the finest fabrics, e.g., asu or asuli poreah, gunnah kotah, gai bonkara- resembles the muslins of Dacca. Weaving was done with handlooms. These were of the traditionally plainest kind. The different local varieties of spinning and weaving had been used in different parts of the province. Posted loom used in the plains were different from the hill tribes. The warp of hill tribes were tied up in split bamboo to the ends of which were fastened a leather strap which passed across the weavers. Comparatively the Assamese looms were in an advanced stage and suitable for the production of finer quality of fabrics of all kinds.
All manufactures were of course meant for the domestic consumption. In the absence of competition, largely quality of product was poor and export of cotton textiles was negligible. Cotton fabrics are turned out by the Assamese and some of the tribesmen. Amongst the Assamese fabrics, ornamentation were either knitted on the fabrics after the weaving or worked along with the weaving.
Embroidery was done chiefly in muga silk or gold and silver wire (guna) by artisans called Gunaakatas, Fig.48 (Guwahati, Assam), but this workforce gradually disappeared with the arrival of gold and silver wires from Europe. The Assamese women knew the use of needle for ornamentation of various design and patterns from early times. They were also adept in the art of mixed raw materials; cotton mixed with silk. Endi or eri was woven with cotton. Rarely cotton was combined with pat silk, but often with muga; churi and riha of such materials were usually manufactured.
Handloom weaving forms a cultural constituent of the woman of Assam. In earlier days most of the cloth required for the family was produced in the family itself.
Now the scenes have changed totally in urban areas. Mill products are gradually replacing the homemade products. Home made cloths are Mekhla and Patani (lower garment of the women), chadar (upper garment of the women), gamocha (towel), dhuti, bed sheet, eri (endi), etc. some of them have fly shuttle or throw shuttle and Assamese type loom. Throw shuttle loom antedates the fly shuttle loom. Villagers generally don’t do spinning. They get mill-products yarn from the market. A few of them keep eri (endi) cocoons to produce eri (endi) cloth.
The designs of the textiles and motifs there in are tradition of the Assamese culture and they are initiated at the base level by the Sipini (weaver women) of Assam. Traditionally men folk of plains wear mill- made dhuties and small or big sized sola/fatua (shirt) and vest or eri-chadar. In villages, rich men use headgear.
The Assamese young boys use on occasions headgears with their gomocha, which they tie to their hip, especially when they are dancing in Bihu to cover the waist with the dhuti. Some young men use Khaddar clothes. Assamese women use riha-mekhela-chadar. The long flowing skirt type cloth up to the ankles is known as mekhela and the upper garment is riha. The red coloured pattern at the end of the riha is graceful and symbolic to Assam tradition. Designs are also found in the pari (border) of mekhela and riha. It is said that the dress of mehkela and the riha chadar has been adopted from the Tibetan and Burmese women.
However, some Assamese ladies have started using saree at home and outside, as it is cheaper than mekhela chadar. Ladies of Goalpara, Gouripur, and Dhubri area prefer sari for both outside and for home.
The below textile traditions of some communities are cited for their community specific character differences.
Boro- the Boro women of Kokrajhar, Darrang and Sonitpur use Dakhna Fig. 62 (Guwahati, Assam), which is different from Mehkela-riha-chador. Generally, dakhna has yellow green colour body with some design in red and brown colour.
Ladies do not use headgear. The culture of Assam is incomplete without a description of the weaving culture among the Boros. The dress of the Boro is similar to those worn by the rural Assamese folks. The women wear Mekhela, Chadar and Riha while the men use dhoti and Chadars. In winter, they wear thickly woven endi Chadars. However, the design of their Mekhela is much simpler than those of Assamese non-tribals. Uses of colours are mainly yellow, red, black and white.
Dimasa Kochchari- The tradition of rearing silk cocoon, reeling and spinning into yarn and finally weaving into fabrics was a flourishing industry among the people of this tribe. The fabric produced by them was superior to any other Endi,
produced fabric woven elsewhere in the country. The dress reflects the culture of the people. This is true in case of the Dimasas too. A Dimasa man wears a Risha similar to Dhoti but it is deep green in colour He uses a chadar called Rimsao beautifully designed to cover upper half of his body. Cotton or endi turban is the common headdress. A dimasa woman puts on a skirt known as Rigu similar to Assamese Mekhela or Meithei fanek. Either it is made of cotton or silk, may be white or coloured to cover her body below her waist. For covering upper part of her body, she uses a chadar very artistically designed known as Rijamphai, Fig. 63 (Kalakshetra, Guwahati). Another chador also very beautifully designed known as Rikhaosa used during dances or ceremonial occasions.The main colours they use for their textiles are green, black, and red, yellow with geometrical and animal motifs.
Mech Kachchari- is simple people. Their dresses too are simple. They use hand spun and hand woven simple dress. Men wear dhoti, turban and endi shawl or chadar. Women use a dress similar to Assamese Mekhela Chadar but much simpler than Assamese counter parts. The ornaments they use are also simple.
Their dresses even during dances are also simple. Mech Kacharis are famous for rearing silkworm particularly endi or eri and the feed plant that is wild castor or Ratanjyot or era are grown as their hedge plant. While they earn by selling cocoons or converting into cloth for their own need, the worm are used as their food. They spin cocoons to get yarns and then weave yarn to get cloth. Method of spinning is however, primitive so also weaving. The loom they use is known as Kanti loom, which is made of bamboo. This loom is no doubt more productive than lion loom used by the Nagas or Kukies but certainly not as productive as fly shuttle loom. However, the spinning tradition is less among the Mech people.
Main colour combination of their textiles is red, yellow, brown and white, Fig.64 (Kalakshetra, Guwahati).
Thai Phakes- In the place called Nharkatia of Assam; it is observed that the dress of the people of this tribe is used mainly for covering. There are two types of dress among the Phakes, namely general dress for every day use and special dress for particular occasions. Scanty ornaments are used. The dress of the elderly male is generally house woven chequered lungi (Fatong) of green and
black colour lined with red, yellow or white yarn, one genji, one shirt (Sho) of mill made cloth purchased from the market and a white turban (Fa Ho Ho). A white chadar (about 2 meters long and 1 meter wide) with a plain border (Fa Fek Mai) and white long sleeved shirt are worn by the elderly people when they go to the Vihar or to any distant places.
Assam is the home of several types of silks, the most prominent and prestigious being muga, the golden silk exclusive only to this state. Muga apart, there is paat, as also eri, the later being used in manufacture of warm clothes for winter, Fig. 65 (Kalakshetra, Guwahati). Every Assamese woman irrespective of caste, creed or religion is familiar to weave clothes on the loom. In earlier days most of the cloth required for the family was produced in the family itself. Now the scenes have changed totally in urban areas. Mill products are gradually replacing the homemade products. Home made cloths are Mekhla and Patani (lower garment of the women), chadar (upper garment of the women), gamocha (towel), dhuti, bed sheet, eri (endi), etc. The designs of the textiles are tradition of the Assamese culture and the Sipini (weaver women) of Assam initiates them at the base level. It has been observed in the village called sualkuchi in Kamrup district of Assam, almost 90 percent of the total population engaged themselves in weaving and spinning profession.
While conducting the field work for this present study, it has been found that some customers of today still want the traditional age old motifs, Fig 66 (Mongoldoi, Assam), for their collection, but of course, there is demand for new motifs in design from some customers. The weavers usually modify old motifs and colour applications according to choice of the customer and market demand and then try to give a new look to it; thus new motifs evolves, Fig 67 (Guwahati, Assam). For analysis, few traditional samples have been selected as visually appeared suitable to study and record their particularity details. This has been presented in Table 5.
4.2 Arunachal Pradesh
There are about 20 major tribes with a number of Sub-Tribes in Arunachal. For the convenience of the present study, few important tribes inhabitant of this hilly area of Arunachal were selected as per availability of materials to study and accessibility of them. To understand a common cultural base of this far northeast part of the Northeast region, the below references would be worth mentioning.
Mishmis form the majority of the population of Lohit, Upper Dibang Valley and Lower Dibang Valley districts. There are also the Khamtis, the Singphos and a few Adi settlements. The Mishmis are divided into three main groups namely- Idus or Chulikatas, Digarus or Taroan and Mijus or Kaman. A section of the Idu Mishmi is also called Bebejia Mishmi. Their women are expert weavers and make excellent coats and blouses. Agriculture is the main occupation of the people. By nature they are traders. Since very early days the Mishmis had relations with the plains of Assam.
The Monpas are friendly and possess a rich heritage of culture. They dress well in artistically designed clothes (Verrier, 1959). Their community life is rich and happy. They follow Buddhism and profess Mahayana Buddhism which centres round the Tawang Monastery. Each house has a small chapel attached to it.
The Nishis are the largest groups of people inhabiting the major part of Lower Subansiri district (near Zero). Their men folk maintain their hair long and tie it in a knot just above the forehead. They wear cane bands around the waist. Their dress and costumes are simple, and the religion is a form of the primitive ' spirit culture'. The Apatani and Nishis are the largest groups of people inhabiting the major part of Lower Subansiri district. A Nishi can be easily distinguished by his dress peculiar to his tribe. A neatly woven cane cap which they call as Bopa to be put on head, a knot at the forehead called Padum, with a cane basket looks like haversack call Nara, a smoking pipe in his mouth and a long Dao (long bladed knife), he looks like a proud man, proud of his race and tradition. The Nishis belong to the Indo-Mongoloid group and their language belongs to the Tibeto-Burman family. The Nishi villages are rarely found in clusters. The tribe as a whole is fond of hunting and fishing in which they perhaps excel any other
neighbouring tribes. The Nishis are almost entirely dependent on slash and burn cultivation, which is popularly known as Jhoom Cultivation. They cultivate rice in the slopes of the hills. "Apong" is the popular drink amongst the Nishis. Their life is full of rituals and festivals. A Nishi woman usually seen carrying a neatly woven cane basket for multipurpose use on her back called egin. One of the important festivals of the Nishis the Nyukum festival is observed every year with ceremonial elegance and spendour during the month of February where the people exhibit a full flavour of ethnic tradition.
The Sherdukpens are a small tribe. They are good agriculturist but their main interest is in trade. Their religion is an interesting blend of Mahayana Buddhism and tribal magico-religious beliefs.
The Tagins are main inhabitant of Upper Sunansiri district. Their main occupation is agriculture. Polygamy is appeared to be customary among them.
Their dress is very simple consisting of only one piece of cloth.
The Wanchos inhabit in the western part of Tirap district, bordering Nagaland.
They appeared to be carefree, cheerful and hard-working people. Head hunting was customary with them in the old days. It was connected with many of the social activities of the tribe. Their society is divided into four classes the Wanghams (chiefs), the Wangpana, the Wangaue and Wangaas. They have a strict sense of discipline and a village council maintains the law order of the society. The entire tribe is divided into about forty confederacies of villages. Body decoration by tattooing seems to be a social custom among them. They believe in the existence of two powerful deities, Rang and Baurang. The women are good weavers. These people are expert in wood carving also.
The Khamtis are believed to have migrated from the Shan states of Burma.
They are the only tribe in Arunachal who have a script of their own, they are Buddhist (Hinayana cult) by religion, and bury the dead in a coffin. They include Khamyang tribe.
Arunachal Pradesh has a vibrant craft tradition and every tribe excels in artisanship. Cane and bamboo is an important craft of this area, and the
workmanship is of a very high order. Many tribesmen make their own required items; one of these is hat, which is often extremely decorative, beautified with the beaks and feathers of birds or with tufts of hair dyed usually in red. They also make varieties of baskets, bags and other containers. There is a wide range of cane belts, woven and plain, and in northern Subansiri, tribals have even elaborately woven brassieres of cane and fiber.
Facial tattoos are marks of a head taker, Fig. 68, various designs indicate the person’s bravery in battle and number of heads he has taken. Head taking was considered to be ‘the capture of souls, to add to the life village’ bringing good health and bountiful of crops.